8 Things We Hate From Buyers

[linwoodstorm]

I’ve come across horrible buyers and I’ve come across many great buyers. While I agree with all points fastcopywriter has stated, there are times that I do prefer consumers to contact me first as I may not be able to do a certain topic/request at the moment whether the be due to technical limitations or inexperience on the subject. I haven’t come across anyone who’s asked for free work aside from vocal samples (understandable to a degree) but I relate to number 4. a lot.

A lot of people can come across as entitled to perfection over the amount of $5 and depending on how I’m treated depends on how much extra effort I will give. I’ve found myself over delivering because of excitement over someone’s project or the fact that they were kind without expecting me to bend over backwards.

I’m not so much concerned with negative reviews anymore because it’s not worth the stress being one freelancer. It would be time consuming to bend over backwards to give everyone who gave you less than a 5-star a refund based solely on the fact that you didn’t deliver as fast as they expected. I state my side and continue my business.

My complaint(s) has been the same. Ratings show for sellers but not for buyers and we can’t reject orders (which is a simple feature that can be implemented. As a programmer, I am aware.) At some point, you have to expand. Some people can make a living on Fiverr, others need a bigger platform.

To wrap up my thoughts, working here has been a learning experience and such with life, you can take lessons you’ve accumulated from one area on to the next. - Linwood

[fastcopywriter]

You can demand a revision on anything, that’s the reality. I could fight with the client, and at one point she agreed to let me keep the $5, but then I realized she might leave me a nasty review, I can’t take that chance. I’m already at 97% and no matter how many positive reviews I get, my rating stays the same.

[fastcopywriter]

I don’t know what to tell you. Write a shorter gig description? I know it’s not always easy.

[fastcopywriter]

I just think messaging is a waste of time. It’s so much easier for me to cancel an order than to beg for an order.

Of course, it’s also important to check new orders everyday, waiting 2-days to cancel an order isn’t nice.

[muhyy2015]

It bugs me when a buyer is suppose to place am order for a particular service of yours… When you ask them to do so then it becomes a problem and they fail to give a reply to you messages… What kind of deal is that?

[mariamughal]

I delivered an order,the buyer was extremely happy with my performance but still he didn’t give me 5 stars (I don’t know why)

[fastcopywriter]

Never give them free work, buyers like that don’t deserve your business.

[fastcopywriter]

Sometimes buyers make several orders at the same time. Use the nudge button for those situation. Then wait two days, if they fail to provide instructions, just cancel the order.

[mehedii1212]

Oh! You like my gigs! Thank God!

[fastcopywriter]

Buyers can be like that, sometimes they give you 4.5 stars or 4 stars, some of them say they’re very happy when they’re just happy. Others however, might give you 5-stars and then tell you that they didn’t like your work but want to help you keep your rating.

You can do everything to prevent negative reviews, but they will come eventually.

Of course, if you wrote something like: “If you don’t like my work, let me know and I’ll give you a refund” then you might get a lot of refund requests. Fiverr is like sales, you don’t want to give your customers bad ideas, but you also don’t want to get bad reviews.

so here’s one of my delivery messages, maybe it will help you:

Hi!

The word document has what I did.

If you like my work, please give me a 5-star review.

If you really like my work, tips are always welcomed. 🙂

If you have any concerns, address them ASAP.

Thanks for your order!

Your First Name (not the last name)

[Guest wowyou]

#1 to me is sort of a catch 22. On the one hand I personally like when buyers contact me first. I actually expressly state that in my Gig description. At this point in my life on fiverr I personally don’t want to take certain projects. On the other hand though, you have to be ready to answer questions all day long. Since Fiverr rates response times, not answering ridiculous questions could actually affect that. I wish there was a way to pass on certain questions without affecting response rates.

Recently I submitted an offer to a buyer request and some guy responds with a snarky note saying my offer was too high. For something like that I would have liked to just press an ignore button. But because I don’t want to affect my response time I feel like I’m “forced” to respond.

[misscrystal]

I’ve been getting stupid questions a lot such as will you do my homework for me?
and can you help me with my gigs? that I have to answer.

[digtheisland]

This opinion is not good to post although you’re entitled to it and to express it in this land of free speech. Whatever happened to the customer is always right? customer care? good manners, not telling people especially clients you hate them… I consider this very rude. Fortunately I had a lot of questions as a first time user, and my Gig designer was patient, polite and facilitated for me those things I could not master, which at times were so easy as to not be obvious to me.

[emeraldawnn]

I’ve also got one right now who ordered on the wrong gig… and ordered $5 for nearly 1800 words worth of work. He “claims” he’ll pay me Friday but he needs the work NOW… Umm. First off, I don’t start on any work that isn’t paid in full. Secondly, you’re not paying for a gig extra for quicker delivery… no…

Instead of dealing with this yahoo, I went ahead and initiated a cancellation request. I refuse to deal with buyers like this. Demand me of my time but refuse to pay for it. Sorry, I’ve got other buyers who paid accordingly and realize that I have a job outside the home and have a family. Fiverr is no longer my main source of secondary income for my family.

[fastcopywriter]

Frankly, why have a gig if you don’t want to get orders? If I have to communicate with you before ordering, I’m just gonna order from someone who doesn’t do that.

My time is extremely valuable, I don’t have time to waste with endless messaging. Take my advice, get rid of that disclaimer at the top of your gig, and you’ll see how your sales improve. Besides, you’re still gonna get stupid messages. If you can’t do an order, refund it. If you don’t have enough time, send them a $5 custom offer asking for more days. You’ll make more money that way.

[fastcopywriter]

“Whatever happened to the customer is always right?”

The customer isn’t always right. If I want a cake shaped like a genital, a Christian bakery is not the place to order that cake.

Furthermore, the title of my post is “8 Things We Hate From Buyers,” the title isn’t “8 Reasons We Hate Buyers.” I don’t hate buyers, I hate certain THINGS that buyers do. I hate being annoyed, I hate having my time wasted, I hate being disrespected.

The customer is right when he’s right, and wrong when he’s wrong. Always right? There’s no such thing. I will refund orders whenever a buyer is difficult. For example, right now I have a jerk who paid for 24/hour delivery, I’m not late, I have 18 hours left to do the job, and he’s treating me like I’m a One Hour Photo. Give me a break.

[happyspace]

Nice thread! Your advice is very useful for a new buyer, fastcopywriter. And thanks to all for such interesting comments. I appreciate buyers messaging prior to ordering and fully detailed notes about what they need me to do for them, especially on my voiceover gig. But as most of you, I am not here to just chat, so thanks fastcopywriter for bringing this subject to the forum.

Luckily most of my buyers have been gentlemen/women and repeat customers I love to work for. But a seller that has been long enough here, could probably write a book about strange messages from buyers. Appart from spammy ones, once a person inboxed me just to say “you pathetic loser working on Fiverr for only $5”. Another one insisted I should video myself dancing for free (without paying Fiverr!) for his YouTube videoclip with people from all over the world dancing to his song as he wanted to get the Guiness prize. You never get bored on Fiverr, that is a fact 😃

[Guest wowyou]

It’s not that I don’t want to get orders. At the moment, I just want to be selective about what orders I take. I just made level 2 seller two days ago, so I’m sure I’ll revisit this as I get busier and have less time to chat. However, at this point, it benefits both the client and myself if the right expectations are set from the beginning. I’d hate to have to keep refunding people. From a customer service perspective it wouldn’t be my first choice. Additionally, from what I understand, that could negatively impact my account, which is something I don’t want to happen.

In any case, I’ll revisit this in time. I’ve only been active on Fiverr 4 months. I’m still testing the waters and will adjust as I keep learning.

[fastcopywriter]

I did write a book about Fiverr, funny you mention that. 🙂 Someone calling you a loser for working on Fiverr is laughable, these are the same people that don’t understand why Walmart’s low price strategy works so well.

[amitkaria]

Ha ha … Amazing but that the Truth… Even though iam a new seller i have experienced quite a few things with my buyer… Infact one of my Buyer was really a gem of an A$$ i mentioned in one of my gig as upto 100 Words … He placed an order and said i thought its upto 100 PAGES… My God… People really dont read and just simply order…

[zoranfiver]

I understand that to some buyers this may seem like whining, but sometimes you only get buyers who don’t follow the rules for several days in a row, and it’s not easy to explain to every one of them that they need to follow the rules and read the description. Sellers want to work and deliver, not waste anyone’s time.

My main advice for buyers would be to just read the Gig’s description before ordering. Also, please, read the Gig Extras, they are here for a reason. When I want to order a Gig, all I do is read the description and see the sellers portfolio and reviews. Those are your main guides!

I welcome most of the messages and reply whenever I can, but it is still a waste of time if I receive a message saying “Hi, do you work on Fiverr?” or any similar question.

Majority of us sellers aren’t telling you this because we’re lazy, you’ll most likely receive your work much faster if we don’t have to explain everything step by step, go back and forth trying to find your message that’s not within the order page etc. It’s for your own good!

[fastcopywriter]

I never criticize for the sake of criticizing. 🙂

[Guest havardh]

@fastcopywriter Thank you for those 8 things. I would like to mention that what i do not personally like is the fact that, after delivering my order and my clients are happy with the work, why don’t they mark the work as complete instead of waiting for 3 days to be automatically marked as completed. That’s what i don’t like most

[emmaki]

Not everyone wants to leave reviews. I’ve tested my delivery messages using them 50:50. One just says here’s the delivery, another mentions leaving a review and even tipping. Guess what? It doesn’t really make any different.

I did notice suddenly (new) buyers giving me tips instead of gig extras, though. They didn’t seem to be doing it to be cheap (as substitutes for a more expensive gig extra, for example). Just a weird synch of sorts.

Either way, there’s no point putting much energy into buyer behavior after they have the delivery. One assumes they are satisfied, and that’s good enough for me.

[fastcopywriter]

Buyers will surprise you, a guy hired me to proofread about 300 words, my rates are $5 for 500 words, he paid me $10. So basically I proofread and rewrote the entire thing. I don’t mind going the extra mile for generous buyers.